Mars, d'ici deux décennies
Au début, ils ont cru pouvoir y échapper. Jusqu'à ce que la Catastrophe, un virus militarisé qui a fauché l'humanité en un temps record, frappe la colonie à son tour. Aussi, depuis qu'il a inhumé Katrina Solovyova, John est seul, il ne reste plus que lui. Lui et Pavonis Mons, qu'il contemple à travers une baie blindée. Et aussi ce mystérieux piano blanc, un Bsendorfer et ce non moins mystérieux musicien excentrique aux lunettes ridicules qui lui parle parfois Que faire, lorsque vous êtes l'ultime représentant de votre espèce ? En finir une bonne fois pour toutes ? Ou entreprendre la plus magnifique des quêtes, la plus vertigineuse, la plus sidérante des aventures ? John Renfrew est le dernier être humain. Le dépositaire de l'esprit de découverte et de la soif de savoir de l'humanité tout entière. Et il a un univers à explorer
Ils sont la lignée Gentiane, la maison des fleurs.
Ils sont mille. Mille clones âgés de six millions d'années, tous issus d'Abigail Gentian et d'une époque où l'humanité n'était encore qu'à l'orée de l'ère stellaire. Depuis tout ce temps, ces fragments éparpillés parcourent la galaxie, spectateurs de l'aventure humaine à travers l'espace, là où empires et conquêtes fabuleuses se fracassent sur la noria du temps. Tous les deux cent mille ans, après un tour complet de la galaxie, les membres de la Lignée se réunissent pour échanger souvenirs et expériences. C'est la Millième Nuit, une fête sans pareille.
Or, pour cette trente-deuxième réunion, Campion et Purslane sont en retard. Un détail ? Pas vraiment. Car dudit retard pourrait bien dépendre le devenir de l'ensemble de la Voie lactée, et peut-être même bien au-delà...
Dans plusieurs millions d'années...
Ayant essaimé à travers l'ensemble de la Galaxie, l'humanité s'est divisée en une myriade de cultures et civilisations adaptées à des contraintes environnementales et des modes de vie aux variétés pour ainsi dire sans limites. Ainsi en est-il de la Lignée Gentiane, mille clones immortels ou presque, issus d'une souche unique, qui arpentent les étoiles depuis des centaines de milliers d'années. Si, au fil du temps, chaque membre de la Lignée s'est singularisé, explorant et poursuivant ses intérêts propres, tous les deux cent mille ans, selon une antique tradition oecuménique, l'étrange fratrie se réunit pour partager ses expériences, souvenirs et projets - des célébrations grandioses qui culminent lors de la Millième Nuit. Jusqu'à ce qu'un grain de sable ternisse les dernières retrouvailles... Un détail, une anomalie insignifiante derrière laquelle pourrait bien se cacher un complot à l'échelle proprement astronomique...
Qui est Silas Coade ? Où se trouve-t-il ? Et quand ?
Un médecin, sans doute, à bord de la goélette Demeter, à l'orée du XIXe siècle, perdu dans les eaux norvégiennes en quête d'un Édifice dont il ignore tout ? Ou plutôt à la fin de ce même siècle, non loin du pôle Sud, sur la trace de ce même Édifice, prêt à rejouer un désastre annoncé ? À moins qu'il ne soit dans les entretoises d'un dirigeable, quelques dizaines d'années plus tard, en route pour le coeur de la Terre, sur la piste, toujours, de cette structure cyclopéenne mystérieuse ?
Silas Coade est médecin, et il se peut qu'il ne cesse de mourir à jamais, ici, là ou ailleurs... À moins d'envisager l'inenvisageable, et d'affronter l'impensable.
Prix Locus 2016 du meilleur roman courtUne aventure interstellaire autour de la guerre, de l'identité, de la trahison et de la préservation même de la civilisation humaine.Un vaste conflit, qui a englobé des centaines de mondes et de systèmes solaires, semble enfin toucher à sa fin. La soldate Scur peut commencer à envisager sa vie après la guerre, et penser à la famille qu'elle a laissée derrière elle. Mais la paix ne sera pas.À la veille du cessez-le-feu, Scur est capturée par un criminel de guerre renégat et laissée pour morte dans les ruines d'un bunker. Lorsqu'elle reprend connaissance, elle se trouve à bord d'un vaisseau de transport de prisonniers qui a subi une terrible avarie. Les passagers, issus des deux camps, se réveillent d'hibernation beaucoup trop tôt. Leurs souvenirs, gravés sur des balles, sont tous ce qui les lie à un monde qu'ils ne reconnaissent plus. Et Scur va renouer avec son vieil ennemi, mais cette fois, pour un enjeu qui dépasse de loin sa propre vie.« Un maître du space opera. » The Times« Un drame passionnant sur le thème de la vengeance. » The Guardian« Une aventure captivante avec des personnages qui essaient de construire quelque chose de positif, après avoir consacré leur vie précédente à la destruction. » The Sun
XXIIe siècle. Le Mécanisme sait tout. Où vous êtes, à quoi vous pensez. Geoffrey et Sunday Akinya savent que garder un secret peut s'avérer dangereux. Leur famille a profité de l'essor économique de l'Afrique. Eux l'ont rejeté en bloc. Geoffrey travaille sur l'intelligence animale au Kilimandjaro et Sunday mène une carrière artistique sur la Lune, hors de portée du Mécanisme. Mais en mourant, leur grand-mère laisse un secret qui va les lancer dans une course désespérée... sous l'oeil impassible du Mécanisme.
L'une vit sur terre dans un monde qui change, tandis que l'humanité explore de nouveaux modes d'existence. L'autre est partie dans l'espace lointain enquêter sur l'ultime périple d'Eunice Akinya et sa découverte d'une science physique révolutionnaire. La troisième voyage à bord d'un vaisseau générationnel à des années-lumière de la Terre, vers une planète abritant un fascinant labyrinthe extraterrestre. Toutes trois sont une seule personne : Chiku Akinya, et revêtent une importance capitale pour notre avenir dans l'espace. Et toutes trois sont en grave danger... « Reynolds est passé maître dans la montée en puissance vers un dénouement apocalyptique, et Sous le vent d'acier ne fait pas exception à la règle. » National Space Society
L'humanité a atteint les étoiles.Deux cents ans après la chute du Mécanisme, la société humaine a regagné une certaine stabilité. On trouve des colonies sous les océans, partout dans le système solaire et même au-delà. Seule la présence insidieuse des Gardiens menace toujours les voyages interstellaires.Cependant, lorsqu'un message radio apparemment impossible parvient à la planète Creuset, tout change. « Envoyez Ndege » : le message semble provenir d'une région non explorée de l'espace. Qui peut bien en être l'auteur ? Et pourquoi mentionner Ndege Akinya, la scientifique tombée en disgrâce ?Afin d'obtenir des réponses, l'une des expéditions les plus audacieuses de l'Histoire est lancée, s'aventurant plus loin dans l'espace qu'on ne l'avait encore jamais osé...« Une histoire complexe et bien rythmée, remplie d'intrigues, d'invention et d'un optimisme peu commun dans la SF contemporaine. »The Guardian« Une aventure à couper le souffle. »The Daily Sun« Grandiose, fascinant, plein de merveilles : un des meilleurs romans SF de l'année. »Sci-Fi Now
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into interstellar space ...
Alastair Reynolds burst onto the SF scene with the Arthur C. Clarke Award-shortlisted REVELATION SPACE, British Science Fiction Award-winning CHASM CITY, and REDEMPTION ARK. Now experience the phenomenal imagination and breathtaking vision of 'The most exciting space opera writer working today' (Locus) in these two tales of high adventure set in the same universe as his novels.
The title story, 'Diamond Dogs', tells of a group of mercenaries trying to unravel the mystery of a particularly inhospitable alien tower on a distant world; 'Turquoise Days' is about Naqi, who has devoted her life to studying the alien Pattern Jugglers.
This is an amazing collection of some of the best short fiction ever written in the SF genre, by an author acclaimed as 'the mastersinger of space opera' The Times
This collection includes ZIMA BLUE, one of the standout episodes in Netflix's LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS
With an introduction by noted SF critic Johnathan Strahan, this collection of twenty short stories, novellettes and novellas includes ZIMA BLUE, one of the standout shorts in Netflix's LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS, as well as MINLA'S FLOWERS, SIGNAL TO NOISE, TROIKA, and seven previous uncollected stories, including TRAUMA POD, THE WATER THIEF and IN BABELSBERG.
Alastair Reynolds has won the Sidewise Award and been nominated for The Hugo Awards for his short fiction. One of the most thought-provoking and accomplished short-fiction writers of our time, this collection is a delight for all SF readers.
Readers are hooked on Alastair Reynolds' short stories:
'This collection was my first introduction to Alastair Reynolds' work. I'm impressed - this is good stuff!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Reynolds is at his best . . . one of the best collections that I've ever read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This book contains a brilliant collection of short stories, all of them highlighting Reynolds' great imaginative powers and his first-class worldbuilding' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'These stories of his are SO COOL. I mean, like glittering jewels of complete mind-blowing and written with real talent and clear vision' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Big questions and existential dread creeping through the elegantly described universes' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'He achieves with his stories something sublime in science fiction writing. There are some truly inspiring ideas and fantastic tales to be read here. I can truly attest that Reynolds is a true genius in the short story form' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
The Inhibitors are back and Humanity is doomed!
Many, many millennia ago, the Inhibitors seeded the universe with machines designed to detect intelligent life - and then to suppress it. But after hundreds of millions of years, the machines started to fail and intelligent cultures started to emerge.
Then Dr Dan Sylveste and the crew of Infinity discovered what had happened to the long-vanished Amarantin race ... and awakened the Inhibitors.
On Yellowstone, where no one is quite who they appear, the Inquisitor and the planet's Most Wanted War Criminal are watching as the Inhibitors turn a small group of planets into raw materials. Whatever they are building with those materials is not going to be good for Humanity.
Once again, Al Reynolds has produced a stunning, universe-spanning space opera of mind-blowing proportions. Big in size, big in concepts, REDEMPTION ARK will leave you gasping at its audacity and breathless at its conclusion.
This is British SF at its absolute best.
Readers are hooked on the Revelation Space series:
'An exceptional, incomparable read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Better and even darker than the previous one. And so realistic written that it gives you shivers . . . There are concepts which are simply too big to comprehend' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A hugely satisfying read . . . one thing that is cool about this series is that I'm three books in and while there is a overall larger story being told each one is totally self-contained . . . Big ideas, a gigantic story, and a sincerely massive and awesome finale' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'It's a well-written mix of sci-fi, horror, suspense, and mystery . . . Redemption Ark is a treatise on the dangers of the kind of closed-minded thinking which plagues our world today' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I am blown away by the level of realism, depth, and structure of this series. Throw in some incredible characterizations and you have a premium sci-fi series' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Reynolds has created a fun, thought-provoking, and exciting space opera series that is as well-written as it is entertaining. Fans of Frank Herbert's "Dune" series and Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" series will enjoy' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains ...
Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels - and with the dying body comes bad news.
If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality - and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability ...
Part SF thriller, part interstellar adventure, part noir crime, CENTURY RAIN is as astonishing bestseller from Alastair Reynolds
Three hundred years in the future, Verity Auger is a specialist in the archaeological exploration of Earth, rendered uninhabitable after the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust. After a field-trip goes badly wrong, Verity is forced to redeem herself by participating in a dangerous mission, for which her expertise in invaluable.
Using a back door into an unstable alien transit system, Auger's faction has discovered something astonishing at the far end of a wormhole: mid twentieth-century Earth, preserved like a fly in amber. Is it a window into the past, a simulation, or something else entirely?
CENTURY RAIN is a jaw-droppingly good SF thriller, packed with pace, adventure, brilliant storytelling and with twists that will keep you guessing to the end.
'A swashbuckling thriller - Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly - that nevertheless combines the author's trademark hard SF with effective, coming-of-age characterisation' GUARDIAN
'A blindingly clever imagining of our solar system in the far flung future' SUN
Return to the Revenger universe, for another thrilling tale set among the stars . . .
Quoins are accepted currency throughout the thousands of worlds of the Congregation. Ancient, and of unknown origin and purpose, people have traded with them, fought for them, and stolen quoin hordes from booby-trapped caches at risk to life and limb throughout the Thirteen Occupations. Only now it's becoming clear they have another purpose . . . as do the bankers who've been collecting them.
The Occupations themselves are another puzzle. The rise and fall of civilisation may have been unevenly spaced across history, but there is also a pattern. Could something be sparking the Occupations - or ending them? And if so, what could it be, lurking far beyond the outermost worlds of the Congregation?
The Ness sisters are being hunted for crimes they didn't commit by a fleet whose crimes are worse than their own. If they're to survive, and stay one step ahead of their pursuers - if they're to answer the questions which have plagued them - it's going to require every dirty, piratical trick in the book . . .
'By far the most enjoyable book Reynolds has ever written' SFX
Miguel de Ruyter is a man with a past.
Fleeing the 'wolves' - the xenocidal alien machines known as Inhibitors - he has protected his family and community from attack for forty years, sheltering in the caves of an airless, battered world called Michaelmas. The slightest hint of human activity could draw the wolves to their home, to destroy everything ... utterly. Which is how Miguel finds himself on a one-way mission with his own destructive mandate: to eliminate a passing ship, before it can bring unwanted attention down on them.
Only something goes wrong.
There's a lone survivor.
And she knows far more about Miguel than she's letting on . . .
Ranging from the depths of space to the deeps of Pattern Juggler waters, from nervous, isolated communities to the ruins of empire, this is a stealthy space opera from an author at the top of his game.
Praise for Al Reynolds' Revenger
'A swashbuckling thriller' The Guardian
'A blindingly clever imagining of our solar system in the far flung future' The Sun
'A rollicking adventure yarn with action, abduction, fights and properly scary hazards' The Daily Telegraph
'By far the most enjoyable book Reynolds has ever written' SFX
'A swashbuckling thriller - Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly - that nevertheless combines the author's trademark hard SF with effective, coming-of-age characterisation' GUARDIAN
'A blindingly clever imagining of our solar system in the far flung future' SUN
Returning to the universe of Revenger, award-winning author Alastair Reynolds delivers another thrilling tale set among the stars.
Two sisters ran away from home to join the crew of a spaceship. They took on pirates, faced down monsters and survived massacres . . . and now they're in charge. Captaining a fearsome ship of their own, adventures are theirs for the taking - and there's hoards to loot and treasures to find in the darkest reaches of space. But the rules are also more relaxed out on the fringes, as they're about to discover . . .
'A rollicking adventure yarn with action, abduction, fights, properly scary hazards, very grisly torture and even ghosts of a sort' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'By far the most enjoyable book Reynolds has ever written' SFX
Gathered here for the first time are Alastair Reynolds' stories and novelettes set in the universe of REVELATION SPACE, his first bestselling blockbuster.
Take another awe-inspiring leap into the darkly imagined future of REVELATION SPACE, where it is time for Humanity to meet its Unmakers.
Mankind has endured centuries of horrific plague and a particularly brutal interstellar war ... but there is still no time for peace and quiet.
Stirred from aeons of sleep, the Inhibitors - ancient alien killing machines - have begun the process of ridding the galaxy of its latest emergent intelligence: mankind. As a ragtag bag of refugees fleeing the first wave of the cull head towards an apparently insignificant moon light-years away, they discover an avenging angel, a girl born in ice. She has the power to lead mankind to safety, and the ability to draw down their darkest enemy.
And on a planet where vast travelling cathedrals crawl towards the treacherous fissure known as Absolution Gap, an unsettling truth becomes apparent: to beat one enemy, it may be necessary to forge an alliance with something much, much worse ...
Come to Chasm City and embark on a mind-bending ride through the universe of Revelation Space
Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake - until the day a woman in his care was blown away by Argent Reivich, a vengeful young postmortal. Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him across light-years of space to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet of Yellowstone.
But Chasm City is not what it was. The one time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines. Before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront truths which reach back centuries, towards deep space and an atrocity history barely remembers.
A spectacular, large-scale space opera - the ultimate galaxy-spanning adventure
Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every two hundred thousand years, to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
Campion and Purslane are not only late for their thirty-second reunion, but they have brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them, and why - before their ancient line is wiped out of existence, forever.
Panoply is a small, efficient police force, dedicated to maintaining the rule of democracy among the ten thousand disparate city states orbiting the planet Yellowstone.
Ingvar Tench was one of Panoply's most experienced operatives. So why did she walk alone and virtually unarmed into a habitat with a vicious grudge against her organisation?
As his colleagues pick up the pieces, Dreyfus must face his conscience. Four years ago, when an investigation linked to one of his most dangerous adversaries got a little too personal, Dreyfus arranged for Tench to continue the enquiry by proxy.
In using her - even though he had his reasons - did Dreyfus also put her in the line of fire?
And what does Tench's misadventure tell him about an enemy he had hoped was dormant?
Praise for Alastair Reynolds:
'A leading light of the new British space opera' Los Angeles Review of Books on Alastair Reynolds
'One of the giants of the new British space opera' io9 on Alastair Reynolds
'[Reynolds is] a mastersinger of the space opera' The Times (UK) on Blue Remembered Earth
'[Reynolds] is the most gifted hard SF writers working today' Publishers Weekly on Beyond the Aquila Rift
The galaxy has seen great empires rise and fall. Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilisations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives.
And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them . . .
Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It's their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded with layers of protection - and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is so scrupulous.
Adrana and Fura Ness are the newest members of Rackamore's crew, signed on to save their family from bankruptcy. Only Rackamore has enemies, and there might be more waiting for them in space than adventure and fortune: the fabled and feared Bosa Sennen in particular.
Revenger is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future - a tale of space pirates, buried treasure and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism . . . and of vengeance . . .
The legendary space opera that kicked off the ground-breaking, universe-spanning series.
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something wiped out the Amarantin. For the human colonists now settling their homeworld, their predecessors are of little interest, even after the discovery of a long-hidden, almost perfect Amarantin city.
For brilliant and ruthless scientist Dan Sylveste, the long-dead race are more than a merely intellectual curiosity - and he will stop at nothing to get at the truth of their demise.
But the Amarantin were wiped out for a reason, and the danger is closer and greater than even Sylveste can imagine...
REVELATION SPACE: a huge, magnificent space opera that ranges across the known and unknown universe ... towards the most terrifying of destinations.
Readers are hooked on Revelation Space:
'An amazing blend of space opera, hard SF, and gothic horror that reads like a cross between Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Ridley Scott's film "Alien"' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Marvellous hard space opera.' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Revelation Space series is one of my favouritest favourites . . . Reynolds held me in thrall with his vision' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'a gritty, desolate, and unforgiving universe in which humanity finds itself in imminent danger of extinction . . . I highly recommend it to all adult fans of space opera, cyberpunk, and horror genres' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A darn good, solid, well executed work of hard sci-fi . . . I really appreciate that Revelation Space ends in a satisfying and self-contained way' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Awesome characters, awesome setting, awesome ideas, awesome awesome awesome . . .' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
A fabulous collection spanning the galaxies and career of SF superstar Alastair Reynolds
Reynolds' pursuit of truth is not limited to wide-angle star smashing - not that stars don't get pulverised when one character is gifted (or cursed) with an awful weapon by the legendary Merlin. Reynolds' protagonists find themselves in situations of betrayal, whether by a loved one's accidental death, as in 'Signal to Noise', or by a trusted wartime authority, in 'Spirey and the Queen'. His fertile imagination can resurrect Elton John on Mars in 'Understanding Space and Time' or make prophets of the human condition out of pool-cleaning robots in the title story.
But overall, the stories in ZIMA BLUE represent a more optimistic take on humanity's future, a view that says there may be wars, there may be catastrophes and cosmic errors, but something human will still survive.
